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Lita Grey

Lita Grey
Lita Grey.jpg
Lita Grey in 1925
Born Lillita Louise MacMurray
(1908-04-15)April 15, 1908
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Died December 29, 1995(1995-12-29) (aged 87)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death Cancer
Spouse(s)
  • Charlie Chaplin
    (m. 1924; div. 1927)
  • Henry Aguirre
  • Arthur Day
  • Patsy Pizzolongo
    (m. 1956; div. 1966)
Children Charles Chaplin, Jr.
Sydney Earl Chaplin

Lita Grey (born Lillita Louise MacMurray, April 15, 1908 – December 29, 1995), who was known for most of her life as Lita Grey Chaplin, was an American actress and the second wife of Charlie Chaplin.

She was born in Hollywood, California and christened Lillita Louise MacMurray. Her father was of Scottish descent and her mother's family was descended from an illustrious 9th-generation Californian Spanish family, whose luminaries included Antonio Maria Lugo. The Lugos were from Andalucia, Spain and were one of the first to bring horses to the country. Misinformation persists to this day that her family was of Mexican descent, despite her family history being well-documented.

Grey married four times. By her own account, she first met Charlie Chaplin at the age of eight at a Hollywood café and first worked with him at the age of twelve in the part of the “flirting angel” in The Kid. She appeared briefly as a maid in The Idle Class. Her one-year contract was not renewed. At the age of fifteen she met Chaplin again when she heard he was testing brunettes for his The Gold Rush. They had an affair and she suspected she had become pregnant by the then-thirty-five-year-old Chaplin. As he could have been imprisoned for having sexual relations with a minor, they married that November in secret in Empalme, Sonora, Mexico to avoid a scandal. They had two sons, Charles Chaplin, Jr. (1925–1968) and Sydney Earl Chaplin (1926–2009).

The marriage was troubled from the start. The two had few interests in common, and Chaplin spent as much time as he could away from home, working on The Gold Rush (in which Grey was to have played the female lead) and later The Circus. They divorced on August 22, 1927, due to his alleged numerous affairs with other women, and he was ordered to pay over US$600,000 (US$8,272,414 in 2017 dollars) and US$100,000 (US$1,378,736 in 2017 dollars) in trust for each child. It was the largest divorce settlement at the time. The divorce was one of the sensational media events of the time. Copies of her lengthy divorce complaint which made scandalous sexual claims against Chaplin were published and publicly sold.


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